


Truth

by Emma_Oz



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 00:11:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_Oz/pseuds/Emma_Oz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story was written after season six and before season seven. It is therefore completely AU.  Jonathan and Andrew are put under a truth spell.  Also, there is not so much angst as measured recognition of their bad deeds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Truth to Tell

 

Jonathan locked the hotel door carefully.  He still couldn’t believe Andrew and he were on the run in Mexico, making a living by summoning the cuter forms of singing demons and performing magic tricks for tourists on the street corners.  The pair had talked about returning to the USA, penetrating the flimsy security of the Californian police computing system and wiping their criminal records.  But Jonathan didn’t want to make that decision, make any decision, until he knew what Andrew was thinking.

He glanced at Andrew who sat at the desk, trying to boot a battered, second hand computer.  His fingers moved as he wove a simple spell, almost the first he had learnt when he began exploring magical means of keeping bullies away from him.  Andrew looked up as he sensed the prickle of magic suffuse the room.  Most people wouldn’t notice it, but Andrew had been raised on the Hellmouth.

‘It’s a truth spell,’ Jonathan said in response to Andrew’s quirked eyebrow, ‘And a binding spell.  Neither of us can leave... and while we are here we have to tell the truth.’

‘Why?’ Andrew’s hands started twitching and his eyes widened slightly, in a way that always reminded Jonathan of a fantasy anime girl.

‘Because we have to tell the truth,’ Jonathan said, willing the sincerity he felt to fill his voice, ‘Because we have to talk about what happened.’

Andrew’s body jerked awkwardly as it would in high school when he saw a jock or sensed dark magic.  He glared across the room, and Jonathan noted that he was clever enough not to voice his complaints.  ‘And keeping quiet isn’t an option either.  I’m not undoing either spell until we’ve talked.’

As Andrew maintained a stubborn silence, Jonathan sighed and saw he would have to be the one to begin.  He cleared his throat. ‘So, um, why did you join the Trio?’

‘Why did you?’ Andrew shot back.

Jonathan answered readily, having already decided that this plan was viable only if they both cooperated.  ‘Because I wanted to be cool,’ he said quickly, ‘And because I wanted to have friends.’

Andrew relented a little. ‘Me too,’ he said, ‘I wanted to be cool, like a super villain, like Lex Luthor.  And because I wanted friends who would think I was cool... And because of Warren.’

Jonathan had hoped they wouldn’t reach Warren so quickly.  He spoke carefully, feeling for words which wouldn’t shut Andrew down. ‘Sometimes I really liked Warren. He was smart and... well cooler than I am.  But he scared me.’

Andrew turned away slightly and looked at the shadows they threw on the wall of the rundown hotel room. ‘Warren was cool and he had... I don’t know... charisma I guess.  The stuff that makes people follow a leader.  The stuff Picard has and Riker doesn’t.’

‘But scary sometimes,’ Jonathan insisted, ‘And I get the feeling he didn’t like girls much.’

‘He didn’t like boys,’ Andrew responded quickly.

‘That’s not what I meant,’ Jonathan said awkwardly, ‘I meant that he didn’t... like women, didn’t respect them.  It was like he thought it didn’t count when he killed them.’

Andrew’s face went blank and Jonathan knew he was thinking of Trina.  

He knew he sometimes had the same abstracted look on his face, when he thought about actions he had never intended to undertake.  When he thought about rape.  And murder.

‘I don’t think he intended to kill Trina or that other girl-’

‘Tara.’

‘But I don’t think it bothered him that he did.’

Jonathan drew a deep breath - he had to continue, had to be sure. ‘It bothers me,’ he said. ‘It was so wrong, what we did.’

Andrew’s hands twined together. His mouth worked.  ‘Yes,’ he whispered, ‘He killed her and we didn’t stop him.  And we...’

‘And we would have raped her if the cerebral inhibitor hadn’t worn off.’

Andrew frowned, still winding his fingers together. ‘She said yes.  She said we were her stud muffins.’

The silence stretched between them until Jonathan couldn’t bear the distance any longer.  He put his hand over Andrew’s, calming his nervous movement.  ‘It wasn’t really her,’ he said, stepping closer, ‘It was like that time we got drunk, remember?  And we traded away those Babylon Five cards to Tucker.’

‘That was a bad deal,’ Andrew said automatically, ‘But we  only made it because he gave us that bourbon beforehand... Oh...’

 

******************************************************************************************************************************

 

Andrew seemed to have run down, like a robot whose power cells were depleted, so Jonathan pushed him gently towards one of the beds.  Andrew sat down obediently and Jonathan patted his shoulder awkwardly.

‘What we’ve done we can’t make up for,’ Jonathan said quietly, ‘But we need to try.  I think we should go back to Sunnydale, go back and help people.’

‘Rescue people?’

‘Like Superman,’ Jonathan said quickly, the words spilling out of him. ‘Rescue people who need help - not from the vamps and the demons necessarily - but the muggers and the thieves and the-’

‘Rapists.’

‘Yeah,’ Jonathan said, glad Andrew understood what he was trying to say. ‘All the people Buffy doesn’t help because she’s busy with the big mojo.’

‘Little deeds for little people,’ Andrew said.

‘Something like,’ Jonathan said, trying not to resent the phrasing.

Andrew glanced at him. ‘Don’t be an idiot,’ he said roughly.

 

******************************************************************************************************************************

 

Andrew glanced over his shoulder at Jonathan and his fingers whizzed over the keyboard as he wiped their criminal records from the Sunnydale police files.  ‘Have you taken the spell down yet?’

Jonathan started.  ‘Just one minute,’ he said as he piled their meagre possessions onto the bed.  His fingers began the familiar spell that had bound them to the room.  ‘I want to tell you something before I undo it,’ he said carefully, ‘It’s OK you’re gay.’

Andrew’s hands faltered on the keyboard but he didn’t turn around.  ‘What makes you say that?’

‘I’ve taken it down now.  The spell is gone.’

‘I’m not gay,’ Andrew said quickly and his hands twitched until he began to twist them together. ‘Why did you say that?’

‘It’s OK,’ Jonathan repeated, ‘And I think we should try this spell again some time.’

Andrew accepted the change of conversation. ‘Back in Sunnydale,’ he said, offering a tentative promise and looking at Jonathan for a moment before turning back to the keyboard.

 

 


	2. Telling the Truth Too

Andrew twitched the curtains in their cheap motel room shut.  The neon lights advertising the fabulous ladies night at the strip joint next door were distracting.  ‘Oxnard sucks,’ he grumbled.

Jonathan shrugged, knowing that the pair had had qualms about going back to Sunnydale which meant their return had stalled in the town adjoining the Hellmouth.

‘And I’m bored,’ Andrew added, flipping through the TV guide.

Jonathan rolled to face him and put down his copy of *The Two Towers*.  ‘We could do that thing again, that truth thing.’

To Jonathan’s surprise Andrew agreed enthusiastically.  As soon as Jonathan had set the truth spell in place Andrew began a brief incantation.  Jonathan startled reflexively as a small demon appeared with a puff of smoke in the centre of the room.  

‘You again?’ said the demon querulously.

‘I just wanted to check one more time,’ Andrew replied, ‘Willow’s definitely not in Sunnydale?’

‘I’ve told you, she’s a long way away,’ the demon said sullenly.

Andrew nodded and waved a dismissal.

‘Good thinking with the checking under the truth spell.  Darth Rosenberg - very scary,’ Jonathan said.  He paused, searching for a topic which Andrew wouldn’t veto. ‘Why did you choose to do demon summoning?’

Andrew sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘Tucker taught me.  It was fun.  It was something I could do on my own.  And it was a way to get power.’

Seeing Jonathan pull a face, Andrew continued before he was interrupted. ‘Isn’t that why you took up magic?  The very first spell you ever did was to ward the jocks away from the chess club room.’

‘That was so cool,’ Jonathan said dreamily.

‘I don’t think it was as cool as the glamour spells.  They rock.’

‘Remember crossing the border?  That was an impenetrable disguise.’

There was a long pause and Andrew blurted, ‘You were cute when you were a girl.’  He immediately twisted his fingers together.

‘Of course I was cute,’ Jonathan replied, ‘Do you think I’d mess up a glamour?’

‘But you were too tall,’ Andrew added, ‘You’re a better height when you are normal.’

‘When I’m me, I’m cuter.  Than when I’m a girl.’

‘In some ways,’ Andrew said defensively.

After a long silence Jonathan said patiently, ‘It’s OK that you’re gay.’

‘I think we should stop now.’ Andrew said , twisting his fingers together and turning away.

 

 


	3. Truths Told

 

The next time they tried the truth spell, Jonathan used a new tactic.  As soon as he had the spell in place, he leapt to the topic he most wanted to address, taking the initiative like a star ship captain. ‘It’s OK that you’re gay,’ he said immediately.  

Andrew was silent, so he tried another approach. ‘It’s OK that you loved Warren.’

Andrew did the full body flinch and the anime eyes thing.  ‘I didn’t love Warren,’ he said quietly, ‘Because he didn’t love me.  It wasn’t reciprocated.  At most I... had a crush on him.  Like you did on Ms Calendar when she couldn’t even remember your name.’

‘You didn’t tell him?’

‘Are you kidding?  This is horrible, horrible. As if I wasn’t enough of a freak already, I get to be gay as well.’

‘You’re not a freak,’ Jonathan said vehemently.  He paused, ‘Well, at least not for being gay.’

He stepped closer to Andrew, fixing him with a determined stare and making him stoop to face him.  ‘It’s OK that you’re gay.’

Andrew didn’t speak so Jonathan pressed on.  

‘You remember when I used that powerful glamour?  A couple of years ago?  When everybody loved me?  Do you think it was just women who came on to me?  Do you think men didn’t buy the swimsuit calendar?  Do you think I only had sex with women?’

‘You had sex with men?’  

‘I had sex with people I liked.  Some of them were men.’

Andrew choked on laughter. ‘You had sex with people who bought the Jonathan swimsuit calendar?’

Jonathan nodded emphatically. ‘I told you I was OK with people being gay.’

Andrew snorted with laughter again.  ‘I had three copies of the calendar.  One to put on the wall, one -’

‘One to keep mint in wrappers,’ Jonathan prompted.

‘And one for private use in the bedroom,’ Andrew continued.

‘You might have mentioned,’ Jonathan said, moving even closer to his friend.

‘You might have said something yourself,’ Andrew said, reaching for Jonathan’s hand, ‘Instead of the whole cryptic I’m-OK-with-your-lifestyle thing.  I even had the action figure.’

‘You big doofus,’ Jonathan said, and he stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

 

 


End file.
